What is the path to safety in university laboratories?

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University laboratories often use hazardous materials such as dangerous chemicals and radioactive substances in experiments. If risks and potential hazards are ignored, or if there is no scientific safety management, university laboratories can turn into a \"cradle\" for accidents. In recent years, safety accidents in laboratories at domestic universities have occurred frequently, resulting in multiple casualties. While grieving, we can't help but reflect on what the issues are regarding the safety management of university laboratories How should managers overcome these challenges? On April 21, the Beijing Work Safety Supervision Bureau, the Beijing Institute of Work Safety Science and Technology, and other organizations jointly held a forum on laboratory safety management. Lab managers from various universities, middle schools, and research institutions in Beijing gathered together to discuss strategies for ensuring the safe management of university laboratories. There are numerous difficulties, and existing standards need to be filled in. Some university laboratories were not originally designed for experimental purposes but were converted from spaces such as classrooms and offices; as a result, many of these laboratories suffer from inherent shortcomings such as insufficient safety distances and inadequate safety measures. It is not surprising that accidents occur frequently in university laboratories. A study of 100 typical laboratory accidents in China from 2001 to 2013 showed that fires and explosions were the main types of laboratory accidents. Hazardous chemicals, instruments and equipment, as well as pressure vessels in laboratories are the main risk factors that lead to safety accidents in such environments, while personnel violating operating procedures or handling things improperly are significant causes of such accidents. These research findings were confirmed during the Ministry of Education’s laboratory safety inspection of universities in 2015. Among the 26 universities selected nationwide, 19 hazardous materials warehouses and waste liquid and waste recycling stations were inspected, in addition to 91 key laboratories at the national, provincial, and Ministry of Education levels, as well as engineering centers and research laboratories that were also included on the inspection list. However, the inspection results were concerning: high-pressure gas cylinders were piled up haphazardly in large quantities, the reagent storage areas did not meet safety standards, unauthorized wiring was widespread, and in some laboratories, food was even stored in refrigerators designed for chemicals… There were numerous potential hazards, which was truly astonishing. “Both teachers and students lack a proper sense of safety. ”Zhang Zhiqiang, director of the Office for Laboratory Technical Safety (Environmental Protection and Radiation Protection) at Peking University and one of the experts involved in this safety inspection, told reporters, “Many people are unaware of the dangers in laboratories and do not understand the potential consequences.” ” In addition to a lack of awareness regarding personnel safety, Zhang Zhiqiang believes that the absence of standards and regulations is also a major reason for the difficulties in managing safety in university laboratories. He once conducted a statistic: there are over 100 laws, regulations, standards, and guidelines in our country related to hazardous chemicals, yet not a single set of guidelines specifically aimed at the safety management of university laboratories. As early as November 2015, Beijing issued a local standard for the safe management of hazardous chemicals in laboratories, but this standard was intended for laboratories in industrial enterprises. According to Fu Lin, an expert from the Beijing Chemical Industry Association who was involved in developing this standard, universities and research institutions can use this standard as a guide for their management, but it is not mandatory. However, compared to corporate laboratories, hazardous materials in university laboratories are not fixed, and these laboratories often conduct exploratory experiments whose risks are difficult to predict. Additionally, the students who carry out these experiments change frequently, and they lack an adequate understanding of the need for safety measures; as a result, unified standards seem unable to meet the management requirements of university laboratories. At this forum, managers from university laboratories agreed that \"standard guidelines for university laboratories are urgently needed.\" There are problems with the top-level design for multi-party management. Due to the lack of unified standards and regulations, universities in different regions have to establish their own rules for management. However, laboratory safety management is a highly specialized and complex task, which gives rise to various issues such as a shortage of qualified professionals and insufficient funding. “It is still a matter of top-level design. ”Zhang Zhiqiang admitted that at present, the management of laboratories in domestic universities is mostly handled by individual departments on their own; in some cases, even one person is in charge of the entire university. The professional skills required are not met, and it is difficult to implement various regulations. Gao Jiancun, a professor at Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology, shares the same view. He said, “It seems as though many people are in charge, but in reality, there are multiple parties involved with no one actually taking responsibility.” ”Zhang Zhiqiang said that foreign laboratories place great emphasis on top-level planning; universities have HSE (Health, Safety, and Environment) management departments staffed by specialized personnel, and the necessary funding for such management is also ensured. Such centralized management is highly effective in addressing the issues of multiple managers and lack of oversight, and it is worth emulating. Peking University has made valuable explorations in the top-level design for laboratory management. The entire school has 123 established research laboratories, a huge number; it’s inevitable that just a few people managing them will be overwhelmed. To this end, in 2010, Peking University established a Laboratory Safety Committee and a Radiation Protection Leadership Group by integrating existing laboratory management resources. This created a laboratory safety management system under the direct supervision of senior university leaders, with department heads taking responsibility for specific aspects and professionals managing day-to-day operations, thereby providing professional services to all faculty and students. Safety responsibility agreements were signed at various levels, involving the university, departments, laboratory supervisors, and laboratory staff, to ensure that responsibilities were fulfilled at every level. Improve quality and address the ‘internal weaknesses’ in safety management. In 2015, safety inspections of laboratories in some universities conducted by the Ministry of Education revealed that a portion of teachers and students had weak safety awareness; compared to the ‘physical shortcomings’ such as inadequate hardware facilities, this weak safety awareness represents an ‘internal weakness’. Generally speaking, those who work in university laboratories are intellectuals with high technical skills. However, can technical knowledge and knowledge of safety be considered equivalent? The answer is clearly no. In the curriculum systems of universities in our country, there is little emphasis on safety education, and even fewer courses are dedicated to laboratory safety. The reporter learned that university safety education covers content that should have been covered in primary and secondary schools. College students face high academic pressure, and schools are cautious about adding more courses on safety education. Many teachers attending the forum shared the same view: the lack of safety education in both primary and secondary schools, as well as in universities, will inevitably pose safety risks in laboratories. “For students in relevant departments, the university offers a mandatory course on laboratory safety. ”Zhang Zhiqiang said that Peking University has established a laboratory access system, which rejects anyone who fails to meet the safety requirements. Today, the compulsory laboratory safety courses offered by departments such as the School of Chemistry and the School of Engineering at Peking University cover topics including the safe handling of hazardous chemicals and emergency response measures for accidents. The university has also developed an online examination system to ensure that students pay attention to safety issues. “The safety management of university laboratories differs from general safety management; it requires a high level of expertise, yet it is often overlooked. ”Lab managers from universities attending the forum called for **the rapid establishment of targeted standards and regulations, and the use of these as a basis to improve overall planning; they also emphasized the need to continuously raise staff’s awareness of safety, address existing vulnerabilities, and manage those risks that are not easily anticipated or recognized. Incident link ◇ On April 5, 2015, an explosion occurred in a laboratory at the School of Chemical Engineering, Nanhu Campus of China University of Mining and Technology, resulting in 5 injuries; 1 of those victims died despite efforts to save them. ◇On December 18, 2015, an explosion occurred in a chemistry laboratory in the He Tian Building at Tsinghua University, resulting in the death of one laboratory worker. ◇On April 30, 2013, an explosion occurred in a laboratory at Nanjing University of Science and Technology, causing a building to collapse and resulting in 1 death and 3 serious injuries. ◇On February 15, 2012, a formaldehyde leak occurred in a laboratory at Nanjing University; the leak was caused by a teacher leaving the lab in violation of regulations while conducting an experiment. Many students suffered from discomforts such as sore throats and tearing eyes in the accident. ◇On June 21, 2010, a fire broke out in a key laboratory at Ningbo University; the cause was two students using an electric stove to melt paraffin wax, and after leaving the area temporarily they did not realize that a fire had started. ◇On October 25, 2009, an explosion occurred in a laboratory at Beijing Institute of Technology, injuring 5 people. The exploded anaerobic incubator was a newly purchased piece of equipment, and the accident occurred during calibration due to unstable pressure. Knowledge post: How the US learns from laboratory accidents. In 2010, an explosion occurred in a laboratory at Texas Tech University (TTU) in the US; as a result, a graduate student working there lost three fingers on his left hand. Following the accident, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) conducted a thorough investigation and in-depth analysis of it over a period of more than a year. From the physical hazards of the explosive nickel hydrazine perchlorate to the operating procedures, from records of near-misses to the laboratory’s safety management systems, from compliance with OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations and standards to the university’s organizational structure, and so on. By doing so, the aim is to use the investigation and analysis of this incident at Texas Tech as a reference for safety management in all chemical laboratories in the United States. From the perspective of laboratory safety management alone, CSB identified three shortcomings in the school: first, inadequate management of the physical hazards associated with chemicals in the laboratories, with no measurement or risk assessment of such hazards; a lack of operational standards and written authorization procedures; and personal protective equipment that focused only on health risks while failing to address the risk of fire and explosion. Second, the laboratory failed to conduct follow-up analysis and documentation of the previous attempted incidents, and use that information to improve its safety protocols. Third, the organization lacks safety responsibilities and effective oversight; CSB recommends that the vice president in charge of research oversee laboratory safety, rather than the previous vice president for administrative affairs. At the same time, schools should give due attention to the safety recommendations of HSE managers and take action on them, rather than relying solely on the personal decisions of a laboratory leader. It can be said that the CSB investigation report focuses on the deficiencies in the management system exposed by the Texas Tech laboratory explosion, rather than a single operational cause or the hazards of the chemicals. To this end, CSB calls for strict regulations to be maintained regarding the safe operation of laboratories in American universities; better measures should be established, and a comprehensive risk assessment of chemical laboratories should be carried out under the guidance of relevant authorities.